Florida 11th November 2012

First day in the "Glades". Spend most of it just outside the boundary of the Everglades National Park in the Lucky Hammock/Annex area. Managed to twitch two nice Florida rarities in the area - Vermillon Flycatcher and Tropical Kingbird. The male Vermillon has been returning to the same area for the last few winters. The nearest they usually nest is Texas but for some reason a handful sometimes winter in Florida. The Tropical Kingbird was discovered amongst two or three similarly wintering Western Kingbirds. They're very similar to Couch's Kingbird but can only be reliably seperated on voice.
The surrounding open fields were excellent for raptors. At least one Swainson's Hawk, two Red-tailed Hawk, one Red-shouldered Hawk, several Northern Harriers, Cooper's Hawk, three White-tailed Kites, Merlin, numerous American Kestrels, Ospreys, hundreds of Turkey and American Black Vultures all in the area.
Not much in the line of late migrating/wintering passerines in and around the Lucky Hammock itself though the strong wind may have been keeping alot of stuff down.
Walked a good 3 mile along a dirt road along the park boundary where several species of flycatcher had been reported the previous day. The only flycatcher I saw were the ubiquitous Eastern Pheobes. Headed on into the park itself and popped into the visitor centre. Like most visitor centres the staff in there didn't know a huge amount about birds which was a similar experience with nearly all the sites I visited.
Tried a few sites suggested by Irish ex-pat Mark Berney. Once I was in the National Park however birding proved to be rather challenging. Numbers of even common species proved to be very poor. The highlight of the afternoon was without doubt a light phase Short-tailed Hawk. This is a Florida speciality is found pretty much nowhere else apart from southern Florida.
A quick look around the Lucky Hammock after sunset produced a Barn Owl along the fenceline.

Male Vermillon Flycatcher

Male Vermillon Flycatcher

Male Vermillon Flycatcher

FemaleVermillon Flycatcher

FemaleVermillon Flycatcher

FemaleVermillon Flycatcher

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Tropical Kingbird

Tropical Kingbird



Western Kingbird

Eastern Phoebe

Female Painted Bunting

Loggerhead Shrike

Second-winter male Northern Harrier

Second-winter male Northern Harrier

Pale phase Swainson's Hawk

White-tailed Kite

White-tailed Kites

White-tailed Kite

White-tailed Kites

Green Heron

Green Heron

American Bittern

Barn Owl

Double-crested Cormorant



White-tailed Deer

Monarch Butterfly